194 The National. Geographic Magazine 



censuses will doubtless show radical 

 changes in its location. 



RESOURCES 



The natural resources of Alaska are 

 enormous. The skins and furs, the fish, 

 the gold, copper, and coal, and the timber 

 of the Territory are in value almost be- 

 yond calculation, and the mere reaping 

 of this harvest sown and ripened for us 

 by nature will occupy an industrial army 

 for many years. The wealth thus col- 

 lected will add greatly to the well-being 

 and happiness of our people. 



Some of these natural resources, how- 

 ever, have begun to suffer from the drain 

 to which they have been subjected. 

 The gathering of furs and skins, which 

 has been in progress since the early Rus- 

 sian occupancy of the Territory, has been 

 prosecuted so actively that the fur trade 

 is now of comparatively little conse- 

 quence. Blue foxes are now so valua- 

 ble that systematic attempts are being 

 made to breed them for their skins. 

 The sea otter has become very rare, and 

 the value of skins correspondingly high. 

 The fur-seals, on account of pelagic 

 sealing, are now reduced to a small frac- 

 tion of their former number, and only 

 24,000 skins were obtained at the seal 

 islands in 1899. Even the great brown 

 bear has become scarce and shy, and 

 hides in the fastnesses of the interior, 

 away from the seaboard, where he was 

 formerly abundant. 



The sea-birds, once plentiful all along 

 the coast, are now driven to the rarely 

 visited parts, where, particularly on the 

 islands of Bering Sea, they may yet be 

 found by millions. 



Fish are still abundant, but with sal- 

 mon canneries springing up all along 

 the coast, it is probable that the demand 

 will soon make perceptible inroads upon 

 the supply. During the year 1 899 these 

 canneries packed and shipped i , 100,000 

 cases and 25,000 barrels of this fish. 



The mineral resources of the Territory 



are yet in an undeveloped condition, but 

 unless all signs fail, the chief wealth to 

 be obtained from Alaska will be taken 

 from the ground. Coal is known to 

 exist in many localities, but is nowhere 

 as yet mined on a commercial scale, 

 owing mainly to its inferior quality; the 

 coal in use at present is brought from 

 Nanaimo or Puget Sound. Copper-vein 

 deposits of great magnitude and rich- 

 ness have been found, notably on Copper 

 River and the shores of Prince William 

 Sound, but as yet none of them have 

 been developed beyond the shipping of 

 a few hundred tons of ore for testing. 

 Gold deposits, both placer and vein, 

 have been found in various places all 

 over the Territory. They are so widely 

 distributed and so rich as to lead to the 

 conclusion that with more extended and 

 thorough prospecting, the known aurif- 

 erous areas will be vastly increased and 

 the yield of the yellow metal multiplied 

 many times. Some of the quartz mines, 

 as the Treadwell, near Juneau, have 

 been worked productively for many 

 years. This mine alone has produced 

 about $10,000,000. Others have re- 

 cently become productive, and still 

 others, more numerous, are yet in the 

 development stage. The mines near 

 Juneau produced in 1899 gold of the 

 value of nearly two million dollars. At 

 several localities in southeastern Alaska 

 and on the Shumagin Islands quartz 

 mines have been discovered, but at 

 present placers are far more abundant. 

 They have been found on many of the 

 tributaries of the Yukon, especially on 

 those from the south, the Sushitna, the 

 Kuskokwim, and the Koyukuk, and in. 

 the north, the Ambler and the Noatak. 

 At several places gold has been found 

 in the beach sands on the seashore, and 

 last, but by no means least, on the 

 beach and the stream-beds at Cape 

 Nome and Port Clarence. These last 

 discoveries seem to be the greatest of 

 the whole northwest, rivaling and prob- 

 ably exceeding the great Klondike dis- 



